Dr. Michael J. Kornelsen
Chair, Music Department
Professor
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Contact Area Classes |
Michael J. Kornelsen is currently the Chair of the Music Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He joined the faculty of MSU Denver as the Director of Choral Activities in 1998. Dr. Kornelsen has conducted choral ensembles for 29 years at the college, senior high, junior high, and elementary levels. He regularly conducts major works at MSU Denver and has studied conducting for the past ten years with Dr. Dennis Keene of New York’s Voices of Ascension Chorus and Orchestra. Michael holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral music from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Master of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Colorado.
Dr. Kornelsen has presented workshops at CMEA, Colorado ACDA, and internationally. He regularly serves as a clinician for choirs in the state and the country. He has served as an adjudicator for the Colorado All State Choir, the Colorado All State Jazz Choir, the UNC Greeley Jazz Festival, and the Colorado West Invitational Choral Festival. In 2008, the Metropolitan State University Chorale was selected to sing at the Southwest Regional Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Kansas City. This is his eleventh performance with a choir at CMEA, and his fourth performance at CMEA with the Metropolitan State University Chorale. Dr. Kornelsen was inducted into the Colorado Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2004, and is also the recipient of a Down Beat Magazine award for Outstanding Performance by a College Jazz Choir. In 2004, he received the MSU Denver’s Presidential Performance Stipend for Outstanding Performance in Teaching, and MENC’s Outstanding Collegiate Chapter Growth Award. He is the Past President of both Colorado American Choral Directors Association and Colorado Music Educators Association, and currently serves SWACDA as its Treasurer. He is a lifetime member of ACDA, and a member of MENC, CMEA, and the College Music Society.
